I sure think so. More on that later .. it has been a battle of press releases so far this week. The NASL’s came out early Monday morning and the USL answered today. Each league released a recap of what happened at their annual general meeting.

USL PRO: Will have 16 teams and a 24-game schedule (hopefully that clears room for the Rhinos to get one or two quality exhibition matches). League alignment/schedule to be announced in December. It’s a national league with a regional profile, meaning teams will play closer to home a lot more. Seven teams in this league, expected to receive third-division sanctioning from the U.S. Soccer Federation, have existed for 10-plus years. That’s key here and THE REASON the Rhinos rejoined the USL. They’re banking on stability, and that the USL will be around beyond 2011, the way it has for the past 20-plus years. Team president Pat Ercoli and coach Bob Lilley do NOT want to be affiliated with a league that could fold or cease operations after one year or in the middle of a season and that was their biggest fear, I think, about joining the fledgling NASL. With the USL, they know what they have.

The USL also says it has strong leads on expansion in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas with the highest profile group being San Antonio-based Spurs Sports & Entertainment, which runs the Spurs (NBA), Silver Stars (WNBA), Rampage (AHL) and Austin Toros (NBA Development League). SS&E is expected to join USL Pro in 2012.

NASL: The big news coming out of Toronto, where MLS Cup was played on Sunday and mucho meetings were held, was that the NASL has been “provisionally approved” as a second-division league by the Board of Directors of the USSF. What does “provisionally approved” mean? I’m not sure. The NASL release says “approval is expected to be forthcoming at the USSF Annual General Meeting in February, 2011 in Las Vegas.” (Can I cover that?) The 8-team NASL also will have a 28-game schedule and released its April 9 opening-game matchups, highlighted by a rematch of this year’s USSFD2 Pro League championship between Puerto Rico and Carolina in Cary. Other matches will be FC Edmonton at Miami FC, NSC Minnesota at Atlanta and Montreal at FC Tampa Bay.

Here’s how I see it: If I were an NASL club trying to build a team, sponsorships, etc., I sure would be annoyed that I won’t know until February that we’re definitely going to get sanctioned by the USSF. Again, the delayed resolution was something the Rhinos did NOT want to go through again (like last offseason). What if one owner backs out between now and then? And do you think the delay in getting sanctioned might turn off some players, who’d rather KNOW they have a paycheck coming next season before February? I do.

All this is more stuff to chew on, for now, and I also agree with Kick This! news director James Weise that MLS expanding its rosters from 24 to 30 and the possible return of a reserve league is something both the NASL and USL need to be very concerned with right now. But if either the NASL (and only 8 teams) and USL Pro (with 16 teams) could align with MLS (18 teams) and work out and affiliation agreement, the way there once was in the late 1990s with the MLS/A-League, that’d be worth trying.

A few more random thoughts today … MLS commish Don Garber can’t be serious about having MLS play on the international soccer calendar, can he? August through May with a winter “break.” Huh? You’re really going to fritter away the months of May, June and July to draw fans to all of your soccer-specific stadiums? I have no problem expanding to a 10-team playoff format (from eight) but to add more more regular-season matches (up to 34) … dumb. Wait, does this mean MLS teams will actually play more than once a week? As it is, the MLS season is WAY TOO LONG and pro soccer becomes an afterthought for anyone but the diehards in our country after mid-September when the NFL and college football is in high gear.

OUTDOOR LACROSSE COMING BACK: Rhinos owner Rob Clark and Ercoli will announce today that Rochester will regain a Major League Lacrosse franchise that will play at Marina Auto Stadium next spring. Reports are that the Chicago Machine, coached by former Rochester Rattlers and Hobart College coach B.J. O’Hara, will move to Rochester. More dates for the stadium without straining the Rhinos’ front-office staff much is a good thing. Check back at D&C.com later today for updates.

NASL CEO ON KICK THIS: We’ll have Aaron Davidson, CEO of the NASL, on Saturday’s Kick This! radio show. We’ll find out as much as we can on the plans for the new NASL but welcome you, the fans, to join us from anywhere in the world. You can listen live at www.whtk.com at 11 a.m. (ET) and call in to the show at 585-222-1280.

ABBY ON TAP: Also look later this week for a story on Abby Wambach and the U.S. women’s national team spending the Thanksgiving holiday together in Chicago, rather than with their families, to prep for Saturday’s second-leg of its World Cup qualifying playoff series with Italy. The Americans hold a 1-0 edge in the aggregate-goal series.

Leave a Reply

Jeff DiVeronica has covered professional soccer and the Rhinos for the Democrat and Chronicle since the team's inception in 1996. "Devo's Direct Kicks" takes aim mostly at Rochester soccer, but will also highlight the USL, MLS and U.S. national team play. Devo, his nickname since college at St. John Fisher, also hosts two weekly radio shows each Saturday on WHTK-AM/FM (1280/107.3 or www.whtk.com). "Kick This!" (11 a.m.) features soccer talk, while the Canandaigua National Bank High School Sports Show (noon) covers Section V sports. E-mail Jeff at jdiveron@DemocratandChronicle.com.
Or follow him on Twitter: @RocDevo